Rohingya Muslims flee ethnic cleansing in Myanmar

Posted
September 12, 2017 20:15:00

For decades the Rohingya Muslims have been denied citizenship in Buddhist-majority Myanmar and have been subjected to a brutal campaign by the country's military. The violence has escalated in the past three weeks, causing 300,000 Rohingyas to flee into neighbouring Bangladesh.

LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: For decades the Rohingya Muslims group has been denied citizenship in Buddhist-majority Myanmar.

They have been subject to a brutal campaign by the country's military, and Nobel peace laureate and defacto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi is facing international condemnation for her silence about what's now being called genocide.

The violent has escalated in the past three weeks causing a flood of 370,000 Rohingyas across the border into neighbouring Bangladesh - it has little capacity to accommodate them.

South Asia correspondent, James Bennett, filed this report from southern Bangladesh.

FEMALE ROHINGYA REFUGEE: The military was chasing us, shooting bullets, torching the village, burning down houses. We ran towards the hills immediately.

MALE ROHINGYA REFUGEE: The army came and killed some people. They raped some of the young girls.

JAMES BENNETT, SOUTH ASIA CORRESPONDENT: In the hundreds of thousands, they fled. Through mud and rain carrying little or nothing.

They're the Muslim Rohingya - already stateless, these people are now also homeless. Forced from their villages in Buddhist-majority Myanmar after decades of violence by the country's security forces.

ABDUL MAJED: We came because of unbearable torture. People were shot dead, slaughtered, beaten. They said this is not the country for Rohingya.

JAMES BENNETT: So that row of tents is what they call the Zero Point. It's the crossing from Myanmar into Bangladesh.

For several weeks now, a stream of pretty wretched looking souls have been trudging through this mud to make it mere to Bangladesh. It's humid, it's been teaming down rain all morning but what awaits them when they get here is not the persecution and violence they fled, but a different kind of hell.

There's in no power, there's no water, the camps are completely overflowing, there's no sanitation, no protection from the elements, there's a battle of survival and above all, a question mark about how long they'll be able to be here.

At this crossing the monsoon magnifies the misery.

Waiting nearby, we meet refugee Abdul Majed and his family. His wife's foot appears broken and clearly needs treatment. But he must first get his elderly mother across.

ABDUL MAJED: She needs to see a doctor.

JAMES BENNETT: While Abdul heads back to the border, his wife explains what happened when Myanmar soldiers arrived at their village of Tam Bazar.

SHOFIA KHATUN: They came into our houses and slaughtered people. They also killed my father-in-law. We could not return to our villages.

They're saying that it's not your village, you can't live here.

JAMES BENNETT: There's been global condemnation of the army's actions against Rohingyas.

This footage shows the aftermath of the alleged massacre of 130 people but the fiercest criticism has been directed at the country's de facto leader - Aung San Suu Kyi. The once revered Nobel Prize winner has fallen spectacularly from grace after failing to act on what UN officials say is a text book example of ethnic cleansing.

ZEID RA'AD AL HUSSEIN, UN HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS: The Myanmar Government should stop pretending that the Rohingyas are setting fire to their own homes and laying waste to their own villages.

This complete denial of reality is doing great damage to the international standing of a government which until recently benefited from immense goodwill.

PROF. IMTIAZ AHMED, UNIVERSY OF DHAKA: I think the Myanmar military wants to create the chaos for two easy thing. One definitely to put pressure on Aung San Suu Kyi and create a condition where she would be forced to take sides.

JAMES BENNETT: Professor Imtiaz Ahmed has studied the Rohingya's' misfortune for years. He believes the army's brutality is a deliberate ploy to force the Nobel laureate into defending the Muslim minority.

IMTIAZ AHMED: Now I think the military is trying to test how far she can go because if she goes too far, the next election they will be making this an issue that here is a pro-Rohingya, Aung San Suu Kyi.

JAMES BENNETT: Myanmar says its military operation is a legitimate response to Rohingya insurgents attacks on security forces. But here, the impact on civilians is evident.

At the border, Abdul Majed has secured his mother's passage but any relief is short-lived.

This contest for scarce space, food and shelter, is pitting refugees against one another.

ABDUL KASHAM, DIRECTOR, HELP COX'S BAZAR: We have not enough support but seriously vulnerable and injured families are selected. This is the first priority, any injured family, and then we support vulnerable families.

JAMES BENNETT: But not everyone is feeling quite so charitable.

Just 50 kilometres from the camps is the beachside resort and fishing town of Cox's Bazar.

SARADDIN AHMED, COX'S BAZAR DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY: The longest sea beach is Cox Bazar. We are proud of that beach. We are trying to attract the world's tourists.

JAMES BENNETT: For the local development authority, the huge influx of refugees, is a brewing storm threatening to drive much-needed tourists from the beach.

SARADDIN AHMED: The Rohingya issue is impacting our city. It is true.

This is not a permanent, it is only a temporary solution.

JAMES BENNETT: It's an issue that divides the Islamic country. Some Bangladeshis want to provide a safe place for fellow Muslims, others do not.

JEHANGIR KABIR CHAUDHURY, AWAMI LEAGUE LOCAL CHIEF: We have to consider that some Rohingya refugees are bad. So we have to think about law and order.